


Roleplay - Borderlands - Different Timeline AU - Jack | Axton

by Nothing_to_see_here, someidioticurl



Series: RP Stuff - TrashRaccoon, someidioticurl [1]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:48:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25000093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nothing_to_see_here/pseuds/Nothing_to_see_here, https://archiveofourown.org/users/someidioticurl/pseuds/someidioticurl
Summary: Borderlands Canon Divergent based RP between Lizard (Jack) and V (Axton).We'll update tags as we go.For the purposes of this fic, BL3 takes place in 2870Lizard: 3,591 / V: 4024
Series: RP Stuff - TrashRaccoon, someidioticurl [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1832299





	Roleplay - Borderlands - Different Timeline AU - Jack | Axton

**V**

Axton wandered back to Pandora or more specifically Eridium Blight. Now since it was close enough he decided to go peek into the Warrior's vault. It was a mix of curiosity if the place changed, if it was still there, to begin with, and the fact that he vaguely remembered seeing a stash of Eridium that he never got to pick up.

He remembered how they left the vault, and with ease, he climbed over the rocks and slid down the rough ground. He decided to sit for a moment, catch his breath when he saw someone.

"What the..." he took his sniper out, using it to take a closer look at the man who was already there. "He looks like..."

He hid the sniper and readied an SMG before making his way down. With a stone-cold face, he approached the man with quiet footsteps, the gun at the ready. He was told he was rash, some part of him knew it but over the years he learned that sometimes it was better to not shoot first.

"The fuck are you doing alive?" His fingers twitched. The man looked like Jack, an older version of the man that was supposed to be dead. Then again it could have been a long-forgotten body double. "...Are you a body double?"

* * *

**Lizard**

On his way to the training hall to spend some quality time with his 'kids', Jack munched on a kebab pretzel and checked the newest Hyperion News. He made a mental note to send them an official complaint. Sure, they were praising him as per usual but exactly this 'as per usual' was the problem - their creativity must have run out because they'd complimented him in the exact same way last month. No, he didn't check.

A purple flash blinded him.

"Just what do you think you're doing, pumpkin?!" Whoever did it was going to get to pay for that. One, because they blinded _him_ , Handsome Jack. Two, because the light was _purple,_ not _yellow_. "What?" Blinking spots away from his vision, Jack took a step back, his trainers crunching on a layer of ash. No more swishing of pneumatic door or humming of AC, all Jack heard was slow bubbling and distant Rakk cries. No more fresh, cool air, this one was hot and smelled of something burnt. Jack activated his clock and - cloaked - waited for his vision to clear out.

The Warrior's Vault.

Jack hadn't been there in years but there was no mistake - in a flash of purple light, he got from the Handsome Jackpot to the Warrior's Vault. He deactivated the clock and - with a gun in hand and one eye on the sky - he sent one of his drones, the White King, over to scan the area for any Eridian activity. Weird meant Eridians. Purple, meat Eridians. Fucking Eridians.

Looking over the results - nothing interesting - Jack noticed the date on the ECHO updated. His jaw dropped. He fumbled with the device, making sure no one hacked it. That it was _not_ a just glitch. His head snapped back at the voice. He paled at the sight and even more, realising he had left the gun on the rock behind; he had wandered away while checking the ECHO. Good thing his mask hid it. "Axton?" Dead? A body double? Jack had killed Axton in this very spot, nearly fourteen years ago! Why was he still alive?

"Axton," Jack sighed out in relief. Dead or not, Axton was the one with the gun already aimed at Jack's head. "Thank, God, you're here." Body double, huh? Jack could go with that. "There was this flash of light and I got shifted here? Like a fast travel but without the stations? Have you shifted like that too?"

* * *

**V**

Axton's brow furrowed and his jaw clenched. He shifted his gun and kept it steady, his question wasn't answered and he learned that Jack was a tricky bastard. He could be lying, he probably was because it was Jack or his body-double and that's what they did. They lied, they killed and they were convinced they were in the right. "No, I came here on my own. Who are you and why shouldn't I shoot you?"

Axton didn't know why the man seemed _happy_ to see him, he killed Jack seven years ago, he killed three body doubles all together and most of all he was a Vault Hunter who was buddy-buddy with people of Sanctuary. He had the man's mask on his wall at 'home' and there was absolutely zero reasons that anyone from Hyperion would want his help or trust.

He looked up, noticing a drone, it's white hub a stark contrast against the dark cave. His watch seemed to weigh even heavier on his wrist now."Take the drone down." He used his best 'sergeant' voice, not that he ever was one nor was he even one to give orders in the first place.

He was aware he was dumb, but he was keen when it came to looking out for himself. Maya though him to think more before shooting, and as hard as it was he found it helpful sometimes. He practically had a 'to-do list' before he opened fire, ask questions, get answers, call someone who knew better and then make his own decision regardless.

"Go on then." He prompted that Jack-maybe-not-Jack. He didn't see any purple light, or any Eridian stuff or well... anything that would explain the current predicament.

* * *

**Lizard**

Think fast. Moved in places and time and quite _possibly_ in universes. Think fast. A body double name!

Slowly raising his hands to the head-level, Jack opened and closed his mouth, looking at Axton with more confusion than he actually had. "I'm Alex Guard." Wait, weren't those names of two different doubles? Oh well. "We've met already, two..." He frowned. "Maybe three times." Jack was a double who hasn't realised yet he's landed in an alternative universe yet - that sounded good enough for now. "I'll take the drone now." Slowly, so Axton could see every move, Jack brought his hands together and deactivated the drone from the twist bracelet. The White King was more of support anyway - scanners, shield recharging and grenade launcher. They stood way too close to risk a grenade.

Jack moved his arms back apart, keeping his hands at the head level, fingers wide apart - his best shot was to fool Axton into believing he was a double. If Axton out of all people hadn't shot Jack on sight, there _was_ a potential escape route there. "Then again, if my ECHO didn't glitch, it seems I got shifted back in time five years too, so the last meeting didn't happen for you yet." Seven, not five. Jack was from seven years in the future. "I was just triple checking if it was or weren't a glitch when you walked on me."

"Wait." He took half a step back and once again cranked up the 'confusion' act, not even looking at the gun or even Axton, seemingly too distracted with his own thoughts. Still, Jack made sure Axton always was in his peripheral. "Why? Why are you still hunting down doubles? It's seven years after Jack's death now... So... It should be just over three years since we located the very last one. We've already dealt with all the rogue ones." He looked Axton in the eyes, acting lost and pulling on the best 'please, help me' face. "What's going on?"

* * *

V

"Never met a double that didn't want to kill me or didn't end up dead." Axton's brow furrowed even more. "Which is usually the same guy."

He watched 'Alex's' every move with keen eyes, glad that the drone was down and that the guy was doing it with clear movements. The more 'Alex' spoke the more Axton was confused, he wished that Maya was here to do the thinking for him. He gripped his gun harder, he hated this, it wasn't his job to deal with weird things like this, he didn't know anything about Vaults apart from their value. "Because the doubles are like cockroaches and apparently not all of them are dead just yet."

He wouldn't mention Tim, it was one of the doubles he liked and who lived, they met once in the Handsome Jackpot, just before Axton was kicked out and banned. Tim was nice, or the nicest 'Jack' he met. "Who is _'we'_? What are you going on about, what does a glitch have to do with you being here? Either Pandora got to you and you're crazy or you're just dumb."

His voice was even, he learned to mask his, as people called it, dumbassery. "Jack has been dead 7-years, yeah but doubles still hang about and sometimes people run into them, most of the time the doubles die. So last chance, what is a double doing here of all places?" He just wanted an easy explanation, he bought the fact that it was a double because Jack was dead, and nothing but a pile of bones somewhere in the vault.

* * *

**Lizard**

"I don't know!" Jack cried out, throwing arms into the air and mentally high fived himself at how his voice broke at the end - he pulled it out brilliantly. He half sat, half leaned against the nearby rock, massaging his temples with fingertips. It would be better for the act if he closed his eyes but he didn't dare to lose sight - even peripheral - of Axton. "I don't know, maybe I _am_ going mad." Fucking Eridians.

He took in a deep breath. He probably had confused Axton enough - it was time to make at least _something_ simple. "What I was _doing_ here is simple. using my drone I was scanning the area for any Eridian activity when I noticed my ECHO showed a date _five years back_ and I was making sure _it_ wasn't a glitch when you showed up." He took another breath. "How I _got_ here, is a different question. A question I don't understand myself. I think I mentioned, there was a flash, like when you fast travel, but I was on my way to training -" he grabbed at his gym t-shirt- "and nowhere near any fast travel station, next thing I know I'm here. _That's_ why I scanned for Eridian activity. They were my first idea for the cause of that."

"The 'we' you asked about." Jack resisted the urge to talk faster - his aim was to explain some things to Axton, but it probably would work in the opposite direction if he spoke fast. "Is me and the other of Jack's doppelganger with some help from you, Vault hunters. After Jack died-" he gesticulated around- "here. One of us - Timothy Lawrence - reached out to a few of us and we organised ourselves." Jack had to create a believable story and out of all his doubles, if Vault Hunters knew one name, it most likely was Timothy. He was the first double, he was involved with Moxxi and he was sickeningly kind. Other doubles were either assholes or life as Jack broke them. Timothy's somehow managed to keep a part of his original self. "We took over Hyperion. We found data on all doubles. We found them. They either joined us, took on a new or original identity, or died."

Jack massaged his temples again, looking at Axton as if he had a terrible headache. "Have I moved back in time _and_ into some parallel universe?"

* * *

**V**

Axton almost, _almost_ flinched at the raised voice but he stood his ground, he faced more dangerous things than a man with a raised voice. He did, however, relax a tiny bit, his grip on the gun was still there but his shoulders weren't wound up so much.

"But there aren't many doppelgangers around, Tim wants _nothing_ to do with Hyperion or other doubles anymore." Shit, he slipped up, but he would have to live with it, "There is barely any body doubles left, we have a list of them all, most of them died on the Jackpot Casino." He furrowed his brow even more, to the point that his forehead hurt. "Was it not a glitch if it showed a date from the future? Or are you actually trying to sell me on the idea that you might be from the future? That there is something like a different timeline? Pfft, it sounds like some corny movie line." 

Sure the chance there was some Valut business involved was high, there was always a high chance of Valuts being involved. He didn't fully relax, he was still on edge and was far from trusting Alex. He sighed, he could see the other was frustrated so he settled on the idea that 1. Alex was crazy, 2. there was some actual vault business.

He mimicked Alex and massaged his temples, closed his eyes for a split second and gave Alex a hard look. "I'm on the fence but on the account that you didn't immediately try to shoot me then I'm giving you a chance here bud."

* * *

**Lizard**

Jack resisted the urge to smirk. Axton started buying his bullshit and slipped up, confirming Jack had picked the correct double - Timothy was apparently alive and on at least civil terms with Axton.

With a heavy sigh, Jack dropped his hands onto his lap and looked at Axton. "Appreciated; having no bullets in my body is highly preferable. My ECHO is showing the year 2870 now. Twenty or whatever minutes ago, before that purple flash, it showed 2875." He frowned and rubbed his cheek. "What did happen in seventy?" He didn't even have to pretend here, Jack actually had to struggle to remember what had happened in 2870, seven years ago from his perspective. Ever since he opened the Warrior Vault, it became harder and harder to remember what months or years things had happened.

"Calypso Twins?" Jack looked at Axton, searching for any tells, any reactions. "A small siren and her lanky, one-armed twin brother. Streamers. They got a horde of bandits as fans, ready to die to do their bidding." Jack remembered he had been secretly angry with himself and openly pissed with his underlings' that none of them had thought to have Jack become a streamer. If those two failures known as Calypso Twins had proved anything was that streaming was a marketing and influence gold mine.

"They had caused some problems but between us, doubles, and old and new Vault Hunters we managed to get rid of them quite fast. This Tannis doctor had proven a great help." Jack mentioned her only to throw in another familiar name. While Jack would never admit it openly, he knew back then - fourteen years ago - when he killed Vault Hunters and Tannis, she knew more about the sirens than he had. Now, it was a different story.

He frowned again, acting confused. "Wait, what do you mean 'most of them died on the Casino? There were only four of them on the Jackpot when Jack died and they were already on their way to get out when we went there to check on them."

* * *

**V**

"Hm, yeah they're still around, I think they're still on Pandora but they're doing or looking for some vault on Promethea." Axton watched Alex with keen eyes, trying to see something that would give away if Alex was a liar or not. "Not really up to date on their shenanigans apart from what their propaganda spews constantly."

Axton didn't really respond to the Tannis part, he knew full well what Jack did to her from what she told him. So, as familiar as the name was he didn't feel any more at ease. He shrugged, "I don't know the numbers but I know there was a good few doubles on the Casino... either died because of the bandits or went nuts and started eating each other. Got stuck there when Jack died, bombs in the neck and all, fucking asshole, fucking people over even after he's dead. It's one of those stories that trickled down the vine, doesn't have to have details, just has to be short."

He almost put his gun away, but he held it with one hand by his hand, quick and easy access to if he needed it. "...So what's your plan?" Sure, he didn't trust Alex but it was the next step in getting information.

* * *

**Lizard**

Jack _really_ struggled not to smirk at the mention of bombs. That was so precious. Whatever their failure of Jack had done that he somehow managed _not_ to turn all Vault Hunters into crispy burnt Vault Monster food was marginally offset by the epicness of fucking people over after his death. Marginally. In his attempts to hold down a smirk, Jack probably looked as if he'd just chugged a keg of lemon juice with a few pounds of salt in it. Good. He kept his hands down though, even if his fingers twitched to touch his neck - the same place he had chipped all his doubles. It could be to dramatically even for Axton. "Yeah, bombs." He took a deep breath and let go of a long sigh - he needed to buy time to decide on a story; it would also be easier for him to remember it if he didn't rush in his lies. "They were nasty. Maybe that's the event that started the differences between mine and-" Jack waved his hand at the surroundings, watching Axton for any twitches at this gesture- "this timeline. I guess. As unlikely as it sounds, I have no better explanation for it... Other than I had hit my head very hard and it's all just a delusion." He looked down at his right hand. Wiggled his fingers. Perfectly natural finger. Perfectly handsome fingers. "I haven't even worked as a double long enough to get a winning hand grafted. I probably would be dead if I got stuck on the Jackpot if none of the other doubles had access to the control tower."

Sappy enough it had a chance to work.

"What's my plan?" Jack hummed, looking at Axton. He was quiet for a second, pressing his lips into a thin line. "Not getting shot by you is at the top of my agenda." He bobbed his head a bit as if considering his own words. "Yeah. Sounds like a good first point. Next would be not dying. It's Pandora. I haven't been on Pandora in ages. The first few days are probably going to be a huge pain in my ass as I get used to it again; been doing more research than running and shooting lately." He paused as a thought occurred to him. No. He opened his mouth but closed it. No. As much as he wanted to deny it, it would make perfect sense...

Jack lifted his forefinger. "Do you mind a second, gotta check my bank account." Without really waiting for the answer, Jack picked up his ECHO. He tried to access his own account but no, the bank he had created years ago didn't even exist in this world. He tried to access his old account, back before the Warrior thing but it had been cleared and closed. He had no money. Handsome Jack, the richest man in the galaxy had _no_ money! He stared at the screen, at the account closed message on it and he could feel the blood drain from his face but something growing in the pitch of his stomach. Something bubbling and ready to explode.

"Fuck!" He lifted his arm - ECHO in hand - but froze. With eyes bulging he slowly lowered the ECHO on the rock before screaming into the sky. "Fuck!" He stomped away, least he destroys his best ticket to getting _some_ funds. "I have no money!" He shouted an explanation, blood pulsing back into his face. "I have not even a single buck to my soul!" He gestured at himself. "What I have on me is _literally_ everything I own in this world!" He pointed at his waist. "I don't even have a belt!" He tucked his thumbs into the waistband and pulled at it. "I was on my way to a gym when it happened! I'm not even in my nice clothes. I'm in my fucking tracksuit!" His 'tracksuit' was way better than anything anyone on Pandora probably owned but hell, it was one of the _worst_ outfits Jack had owned.

Jack leant back against his rock and threw his arms into the air before letting them fall to his sides. "You wanted my plan? Here's my plan. Not getting shot by you, something I'm doing maybe only _just_ right. Surviving this godforsaken planet, that's probably going to be a pain in the ass. Building up some funds, no idea how yet!" Probably hacking some bank accounts but he was _not_ saying it out loud. "Maybe I'll become a mercenary. It's Pandora after all. Here people either are mercenaries, hire mercenaries or get killed by mercenaries." He ran his hands down his face, amping up his own, genuine distress - this _was_ a bloody mess. He looked at Axton with his fingers still on his cheeks. "Any suggestions where to find a bounty board? Or how to get there?"

Knowing his luck, or lack thereof, he would _probably_ run into other Vault Hunters. Maybe only Salvador would be easier to fool than Axton. It would pay to have a convinced Axton sticking around to help convince others.

* * *

**V**

Axton watched Alex's face, he looked to be grimacing but not quite, there was something more to it but he just couldn't place what it was. However, he didn't think of it too long as he burst out laughing. Sure, it might have been a double but he did look exactly like Handsome Jack, sounded like him and the burst out about the genuine distress about having no money just cracked him up. He wheezed, bending in half and at one point even having to sit down on the ground. He tried to say something to the double, to either make him feel better or worse, he didn't know just yet as he wheezed and kept on laughing. If it was the real deal then he was reduced to what everyone else was on Pandora and even other planets. It felt like mere seconds to Axton but it probably took him a good few minutes to fully calm down and get his composure back. His gun was now slung over his torso, swinging around with each of Axton's moves and knocks against it.

"Sounds like a good plan then." He wiped a literal tear out of the corner of his eye, still smiling and not at all hiding his amusement. "There is one somewhere around here if I remember right, but I'd need to drive around and try and remember it first. I'd offer to drive you there but I'm not a taxi nor do I trust you just yet."

Sure, he may be dumber than a boot when it came to most things but he listened to his gut. His gut, as a matter of fact, was saying something along the lines of, _'You help him and he will slit your throat the moment you fall asleep.'_ He sighed, he did want to help but he just... wasn't convinced just yet. The outburst about money seemed like the most genuine reaction out of everything he saw that day. "If you can convince me in the time that it takes me to loot this place then good on you."

With that, he walked off and claimed the side of the cliff? Mountain? Cavern? He didn't know exactly what it was apart from a rocky surface. He found the chest hidden behind rocks with rubble on top of it. If it wasn't for the fact that he knew it was there, the contents would be lost forever.

* * *


End file.
